Writing Assignments

Integrating quotations

• (Q5) Quotations must agree with the overall grammar of the sentence in which they are included.
• (Q6) Quotations must be introduced with sufficient context for them to make sense. Introductions such as “The passage includes the following statement,” “The character says,” and similar constructions do not provide the appropriate context.
• (Q7) The words within your quotation marks must be quoted exactly from the original.
• (Q8) You may insert words in a quotation if you enclose them within brackets.

Stance and style

• (S2) Focus on the story – not the author or the reader. This focus also means not including the word “use” – or any synonym of “use” – in the essay to refer to literary techniques and devices.
• Although we speak of proving your point and of providing evidence, you should not construct sentences that require you to use the words “prove” or “evidence.” (You should not find synonyms for those words to use instead.)
• (S3) Be cautious about passive construction. Do not use “is ___ing” or “are ____ing” when a single present tense verb will do the job.
• The word “this” is a pronoun. Pronouns may stand for a noun or another pronoun. Although we generally use the word “this” (and its related words “that,” “these,” and “those”) to stand for whole sentences or even paragraphs, in formal writing, they should always stand for a noun or pronoun. If you have this problem, you may solve it by placing a noun after “this” that will sum up the sentence or paragraph to which you wish to refer.
• Do not use contractions in formal writing.
• Distinguish between want and desire.
• Do not use colloquial language in academic writing.
• Do not use and when you should use but.
• Avoid the “is when” and “is where” constructions.

Grammar

• (G1) Write about literature in the present tense.
• Avoid dangling modifiers by making sure that modifying phrases and clauses are always right next to the word they modify.

Punctuation

• Use a semicolon (;) to separate items in a series when those items already include commas.
• Use a semicolon (;) before a conjunctive adverb.
• Italicize letters used as letters.
• (P5) Apply the rules for apostrophes.